User Comments - go_manly

Posted on: Good Morning!

Do you mean, how do you enter pinyin in these comments?

If so, click on tools (at the top of this page), then select add-ons, then enable the Pinyin converter. Once enabled, you will see a 'Convert to Tone Marks' button below the edit box each time you add a comment. Just type xia4yu3, and hit this button, and it will appear as xiàyǔ.

Posted on: Antiperspirant in China

In the Expansion Sentence:

别笑了，小心把饭喷出来。

Bié xiào le, xiăoxīn bă fàn pēn chūlai.

Don't laugh, be careful not to spit out your food.

what indicates that the person is being warned to be careful NOT to spit out their food?

Posted on: Changing a Plane Ticket

Ah, makes sense.

Posted on: Changing a Plane Ticket

OK, I didn't know that. I don't think I come across a lesson where 不过 means that, or where 过 means 'more than'. I have only struck 过 in the sense of 'to pass', or the past experience marker. Thanks for the info.

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 6: An Old Flame

It just shows, I'm not always absorbing the content when I am doing a transcript - or perhaps its just because I was only editing someone elses transcript. Anyway, thanks for the references.

Posted on: Changing a Plane Ticket

这有 does not mean so.

There is something missing from that first sentence.

It could be 这儿有... or 这里有... meaning 'here there are ...', or there should be a measure word, such as 这个有... meaning 'this one has ...'

Regarding your 2nd question, I think you are confusing 不过 (búguò, meaning 'but') with 不够 (búgòu, meaning 'not enough') - note the different Pinyin.

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

I don't know what I was thinking there. It does have a verb, and I have copied the dialog sentence directly. Anyway, it doesn't change the rest of the comment.

Posted on: Chinese Fruits

I don't think you can talk about THE use of qǐlái.

There seem to be a number of uses, and its difficult to see a common thread.

There is only one meaning in this lesson however.

Take kànqǐlái, tīngqǐlái and chīqǐlái.

When kàn, tīng and chī are used alone, the subject is doing the seeing, hearing and eating.

When qǐlái is added, the subject is BEING seen, heard and eaten.

But, more than that, it describes how that action is interpreted by the 'observer' - the person doing the seeing, hearing and eating.

So: 'looks ...' (exhausted, for example), 'sounds ...' (pleasant, for example), and - well the 3rd one is harder. I don't think it can be translated directly into English. I think that is because in English we only use this structure to describe the 5 senses - there's also 'smells ... (rotten, for example)', 'tastes ...' (sour, for example), and 'feels ...' (prickly, for example).

Different Nciku sample sentences, the lesson dialog, and the Expansion sentences for this lesson suggest that chīqǐlái can variously refer to the taste, texture, or how easy or difficult the food is to eat.

So its like 'how is it to eat?' rather than 'how does it taste?'.

Anyway thats my take on this one use of qǐlái.

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

Perhaps 'condition' was not the right choice of words - I'm not sure.

But this usage of 就 implies that something is following on as a result of something else.

A problem is that there is no verb in this sentence - fully, it might read

我喝茶，就好了。

If you treat this 好了 as "Bob's your uncle", it works. (I hope that is not just an Australian phrase.)

So, "If I drink tea, then Bob's your uncle".

In this case, it doesn't mean better, just good.

Take a Nciku sample sentence:

有谁能帮助我就好了。(Yǒu shéi néng bāngzhù wǒ, jiù hǎo le.) If only someone would help me!

The 就好了 has not been translated here, but if was, it would be "If only someone would help me, then things would be great". or something like that.

Or another one:

不过是点小伤，过几天就好了。(Búguò shì diǎn xiǎoshāng, guò jǐtiān jiù hǎo le.) It's only a slight injury. It'll be fine in a few days.

Literally - But only small injury, pass few days then better.

Posted on: Dealing with Praise

You would add another 了 at the end of the sentence.

There is a Qingwen Lesson on this.

I tried to post a link to the lesson here, but again this new system has let me down.

It is Qingwen Lesson 17.